


Commitment Issues

by spiffyname



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Banter, F/M, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Huddling For Warmth, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 02:41:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21263741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiffyname/pseuds/spiffyname
Summary: He mentally shrugged. They were either going to die here, frozen together, or they would live and he’d deal with the consequences.





	Commitment Issues

**Author's Note:**

> Happy end of Sparktober!! 
> 
> A million thanks to Kelly, as per usual.

“C’mon Lizabeth. Stay with me, you can do it,” Sheppard was saying, holding her closer. “Talk to me.”

“And say what?” she asked, teeth chattering.

He rubbed her arms, hoping to get more blood flowing in her body. “I don’t know. Anything. I don’t really know you that well.”

“The same could be said about you, Major,” she replied, trying to get closer if it was possible.

“Okay. You go first.” He could feel her sigh.

“I think I miss my dog more than my fiancé. Well, ex-fiance. Does that make me a terrible person?”

It took him a moment to fully understand what she had said, and he shook his head. “No, why would it? I, uh… I didn’t know you were seeing someone.”

“Well, not anymore, obviously,” she replied.

He nodded. “So, what happened? Because I don’t believe for one second that you couldn’t convince him to come to a strange new galaxy,” John asked, now very aware of his hands on her body after talking about her past romantic relationship.

She rolled her eyes at him, not that he could see it. He could feel it though. “I didn’t ask him to come. He didn’t have clearance.”

“What, like it’s hard?”

Elizabeth paused for several moments. “Did you… just quote _Legally Blonde_ at me?” she asked, incredulous.

He shrugged as well as he could, considering he was hugging her so tightly. “Movies were a hot commodity on base back at McMurdo. Anything was good, even if it wasn’t good, you know? Also, Reese Witherspoon is an attractive lady.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that. And to answer your question: yes, it actually is hard, Major. Not everyone had a General just giving clearances away like it was going out of style.”

“Hey, now. You should be thankful that he did. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here right now, and you’d be freezing your ass off.”

“I’m _still_ freezing my ass off, but you’re right. I’m grateful you’re here, John,” Elizabeth told him, sincerely. “Okay, I shared something personal with you, now it’s your turn.”

“My love of _Legally Blonde_ wasn’t enough?” John tried, and Elizabeth tried to elbow him in the side. “Hey! That’s not very nice. You should be kinder to the person who’s trying to keep you warm.”

“Maybe _he_ should be nicer to _me_,” she shot back, and John sighed.

“Okay, fine. Um… You used to have a fiancé? Well, I used to be married,” he confessed.

“I’m guessing clearance wasn’t an issue?” she tried, and he huffed out a breath.

“No, not at the time,” he told her. Then, “We were young and in love, and didn’t think it would be so hard. But she didn’t get it, and I couldn’t explain it to her. I wasn’t the same person she married, and she wasn’t the woman I thought I needed.”

She was quiet for a few moments. “I probably would have been happy with Simon. We both loved our work, and we understood that part of each other, you know? But… I love my job. I think I love my job more than most people? It came down to a choice – a great job opportunity in another galaxy, or…”

“True love?” John hedged.

“… I feel awful, but no. If it was true love, I think I would have had a harder time saying yes to the job.”

“But it couldn’t have been easy, taking a leap like that.”

“Easier for me than some, I think.”

“So where’s your dog, if it’s not here?” John asked, feeling the need to change the subject before she got too sad and decided that coming here was the biggest mistake she ever made.

“With my mom. Simon travels too much for work. And Sedge was always my dog. I mean, as much as a person can _own_ another animal, that is.”

John leaned back a bit in order to properly look at her. “Are you serious? You’re not honestly one of those free-loving, hippie types, right? Or worse, you’re not a vegan, are you? The bad kind, I mean – where you judge and preach to other people for eating meat and refuse to touch something that might have had an animal by-product on it?”

Elizabeth laughed even through her full body shiver. “Wow. Um, no, it was a joke, but now I’m dying to hear about your experiences with vegans.”

John could have shot himself in the foot for how he walked into that one. “I, uh… I briefly saw this girl who was like that.”

“How brief?” she asked, and John just knew she was grinning.

“Probably longer than I should have, but… I was on leave, so not as long as it could have been?”

“Ah, so you’re a love ‘em and leave ‘em, type. I should have known. Most fly-boys are, aren’t they?” she teased.

John shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t date a lot of fly-boys myself,” he told her. Then, “I tried doing the commitment thing, and it didn’t go over well. I mean, it was fine, I guess, but it ended. So that was, you know, less great.”

Elizabeth sighed. “At least you tried?” she offered.

John had to grin, and then thought about how much he was going to overstep with his next comment. He mentally shrugged. They were either going to die here, frozen together, or they would live and he’d deal with the consequences. Besides, it was her own fault for wanting to get to know him better. “Well, I didn’t have another galaxy to run away to, just so I didn’t have to get married.”

He felt her bristle, and again she tried to elbow him, so he didn’t think he had overstepped too much. “I didn’t run away to another galaxy just so I didn’t have to marry him! It just… happened to work out that way,” she said, then immediately shook her head. “God, no, what am I saying? If I stayed on Earth, I would have married him. I’m sure I would have been happy.”

“Happier than you are now?” John asked, grinning.

“At the moment? Yes, _way_ happier than right now. I’m freezing my ass off, and I’m hoping it’s your side-arm that’s digging into my hip. Oh, also, being lost on Planet Atlartica hasn’t been that ideal.”

“Okay, first of all, yes Elizabeth, that is my side-arm. But thank you for the compliment, I guess. Also, I told you, Ford’s not allowed to name things anymore. _Atlartica_. Seriously? That’s awful. I’d rather call it the Deadly Ice Planet than Atlartica.” 

“He’s _terrible_, isn’t he? I didn’t want to say anything, he’s so eager and earnest, but my _god_.”

“Okay, I’m going to tell him that it’s a unanimous decision that he’s not allowed to name anything, ever. And if he cries about it, I’m sending him to you.”

“Oh, but John, when will you have the time? If we ever get back to the City, you’ll be spending all of your time with McKay, being his little helper,” she told him.

He sighed. “Look, it's not _my_ fault we got separated from the group. However, if you wanted to point fingers, they would be pointing at you. _You’re_ the one that wandered off. I just followed you." He shook his head. "And you said ‘if’ right? Is it bad that I’m hoping we die out here?”

“_We_?!”

John groaned. He tried explaining: “_Technically_, you’d probably go first, being the smaller of the two of us.” 

“Wow. Just… wow, Major. Not only are you not chivalrous in the least, but now you’re hoping I die first?!”

“Not hoping for _your_ death, Doctor. But, I mean, odds are on you biting it first, and it would have nothing to do with me being chivalrous about it or not – which hello, I’m sharing body heat. Anyway, it’s just statistics.”

“The next time I go to an Icy Death Planet, I’m _so_ not taking you with me,” she muttered.

“Well good. I’m getting real tired of you using me for my body, and not in the fun way.”

“Well maybe if you could actually turn on something without it blowing up in all of our faces, I would change my mind!”

“Well maybe if you’d just let me –"

“They’re over here! Doc! Major! Are you two all right?” Ford called, and Elizabeth and John struggled to get to their feet.

“Lieutenant! Oh, you are such a sight for sore eyes!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

“What took you so long?” John muttered, and caught the elbow that Elizabeth tried to dig into his side. He was catching on, and the look on her face told him she knew it as well.

“Sorry, Sir, Ma’am. It seems that Atlartica’s geo-magnetic field was… interfering with our gizmos?” Ford stated, with a lack of conviction that surprised no one. John knew that Ford tended to zone out when McKay got too technical with his geek-speak. Not that John could blame him. The lieutenant took a few things out of his pack. “Here, some hand warmers and blankets, if you need them,” he said, cracking one hand warmer and handing it to Elizabeth.

“Aiden, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I love you right now,” Elizabeth said as her fingers thawed.

Ford looked surprised, and blushed faintly.

“Don’t get too excited, Ford. She’s got commitment issues,” John told him.

~fin


End file.
